School year to include five breaks beginning fall 2017
The Minister of Education and Research signed a regulation which will add an additional school break to the spring schedule beginning during the 2017/2018 school year, which will allow for periods of study to be broken up into more more manageable, health- and learning-friendly periods of study.
"Spring quarters are currently ten to fifteen days longer than those of the beginning of the school year, and they serve to worsen students' and teachers' spring fatigue," explained Minister of Education and Research Jürgen Ligi. "An extra break during winter will be beneficial and will allow for the opportunity to hear more about the joys of spring rather than fatigue."
The minister noted that the system has already been able to prove itself. "Feedback from schools that have already tested out the five-break schedule has been almost exclusively positive," explained Ligi. "Since this change will affect the schedules of hundreds of thousands of parents and children, we highly valued the experiences of schools and local governments that took advantage of the exclusive right."
The proposal to switch to a five-break school year schedule was supported by students, school directors and local government representative organizations alike.
The breaks in the 2017/2018 school year, the first to follow the five-break schedule, will be scheduled as follows:
1. Fall break: Oct. 21-29, 2017
2. Winter break: Dec. 23 2017-Jan. 7, 2018
3. Ski break: Feb. 24-Mar. 4, 2018
4. Spring break: Apr. 21-May 1, 2018
5. Summer break (excluding seniors): Jun. 12 - Aug. 31.
Editor: Editor: Aili Sarapik